crib Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun baby bed with high sides made of slats
    cot.
  2. noun a literal translation used in studying a foreign language (often used illicitly)
    pony; trot.
  3. noun a bin or granary for storing grains
  4. noun the cards discarded by players at cribbage
  5. noun a card game (usually for two players) in which each player is dealt six cards and discards one or two
    cribbage.
  6. verb use a crib, as in an exam
  7. verb take unauthorized (intellectual material)
  8. verb line with beams or planks
    • crib a construction hole

WordNet

Crib noun
Etymology
AS. crybb; akin to OS. kribbja, D. krib, kribbe, Dan. krybbe, G. krippe, and perh. to MHG. krebe basket, G, korb, and E. rip a sort of wicker basket.
Definitions
  1. A manger or rack; a feeding place for animals.
    The steer lion at one crib shall meet. Pope.
  2. A stall for oxen or other cattle.
    Where no oxen are, the crib is clean. Prov. xiv. 4.
  3. A small inclosed bedstead or cot for a child.
  4. A box or bin, or similar wooden structure, for storing grain, salt, etc.; as, a crib for corn or oats.
  5. A hovel; a hut; a cottage.
    Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, . . . Than in the perfumed chambers of the great? Shak.
  6. (Mining) A structure or frame of timber for a foundation, or for supporting a roof, or for lining a shaft.
  7. A structure of logs to be anchored with stones; -- used for docks, pier, dams, etc.
  8. A small raft of timber. Canada
  9. A small theft; anything purloined;; a plagiaris hence, a translation or key, etc., to aid a student in preparing or reciting his lessons. Colloq.
    The Latin version technically called a crib. Ld. Lytton.
    Occasional perusal of the Pagan writers, assisted by a crib. Wilkie Collins.
  10. A miner's luncheon. Cant Raymond.
  11. (Card Playing) The discarded cards which the dealer can use in scoring points in cribbage.
Crib transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Cribbed present participle & verbal noun Cribbing
Definitions
  1. To shut up or confine in a narrow habitation; to cage; to cramp.
    If only the vital energy be not cribbed or cramped. I. Taylor.
    Now I am cabin'd, cribbed, confined. Shak.
  2. To pilfer or purloin; hence, to steal from an author; to appropriate; to plagiarize; as, to crib a line from Milton. Colloq.
    Child, being fond of toys, cribbed the necklace. Dickens.
Crib intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To crowd together, or to be confined, as in a crib or in narrow accommodations. R.
    Who sought to make . . . bishops to crib in a Presbyterian trundle bed. Gauden.
  2. To make notes for dishonest use in recitation or examination. College Cant
  3. To seize the manger or other solid object with the teeth and draw in wind; -- said of a horse.

Webster 1913